From Wheelchair to Walking: A Remarkable Recovery Story
Art’s journey with ataxia began in 2021 when he experienced a stroke that left him with significant mobility and speech challenges. Initially diagnosed with acquired ataxia, he later discovered through genetic testing that he also had an unidentified form of genetic ataxia. The prognosis from medical professionals was bleak—Art was told he would remain wheelchair-bound with his condition progressively worsening over time.
“Every expert or doctor said I would remain in a wheelchair and get worse over time,” Art explains. However, his story took a dramatic turn when he began working with Danny, a personal trainer with nearly two decades of experience.
The Training Approach: Pushing Beyond Perceived Limits
When Art first started training with Danny in January 2023, he couldn’t walk without ski poles, had poor coordination, frequent falls, and needed an inhaler. Danny’s approach was straightforward but revolutionary in the context of ataxia treatment: progressive overload training with no limitations on what Art could potentially achieve.
“I would have him walk the steps, you know, sets of ten,” Danny says. “Now he can walk up and down the steps a hundred times nonstop with no hands.”
This push-the-envelope philosophy stands in stark contrast to the traditional medical approach that often emphasizes limitations rather than possibilities. The results speak for themselves—Art has gone from needing ski poles to performing weighted walking lunges and driving independently.
The Carnivore Transformation: When Diet Changes Everything
While exercise played a crucial role in Art’s recovery, the most significant improvement came when he adopted a carnivore diet in March 2024. Prior to this, Art had followed a ketogenic diet, which provided some benefits, but the full carnivore approach took his recovery to another level.
“By far, besides exercise, I would say the diet is just as good as exercise. You really need both,” Art emphasizes.
The transition wasn’t without challenges. Art describes the initial adaptation phase as difficult while his body adjusted to ketosis. However, once past this hurdle, the diet became easy to maintain. His taste preferences even changed, eliminating his desire for condiments like ketchup and simplifying his food choices to meat seasoned with only salt and pepper.
Beyond Mobility: Whole-Body Improvements
The benefits of the carnivore diet extended far beyond Art’s ataxia symptoms. After switching to a meat-based diet, Art dropped from 190 pounds to 160 pounds, becoming noticeably leaner. More importantly, his energy levels stabilized—no more ups and downs throughout the day.
“The most notable thing is fatigue and tiredness. You don’t get as tired. You literally can go and go and go,” Art explains. “It’s like that flat line energy. You don’t have those ups and downs.”
Perhaps most surprising was the improvement in Art’s leg cramps, which had been a persistent problem. When Danny suggested incorporating more fatty ruminant meat and moving away from eggs and chicken as protein sources, Art experienced a 90% reduction in nighttime leg cramps.
The Cerebellum Connection: Measurable Brain Changes
While Art’s symptomatic improvements are impressive on their own, medical scans have revealed something even more remarkable—physical changes in his brain. Initial scans showed Art’s cerebellum was approximately 50% smaller than normal, a typical finding in ataxia patients. However, recent scans revealed a 1-2% increase in cerebellum size, something Art’s doctors indicated “has never been heard of before.”
Challenging Medical Conventions
Art’s experience stands in stark contrast to conventional medical approaches to ataxia, which often focus on managing decline rather than pursuing improvement. In his interactions with the medical establishment, Art notes that nutrition was never mentioned as a potential factor in recovery.
His neurologist now looks to Art for advice, telling him, “It’s better—it’s obvious for you to listen to your trainer. It obviously is helping.” She expressed surprise at his improvement, noting she had never seen or heard of such progress in an ataxia patient.
Art’s message to others with neurological conditions is straightforward: “Eat the way God intended. God didn’t intend for you to eat a honey bun every day. Diet is not difficult. It’s really simple if you think about it.”
